Saturday, 14 May 2016

All good things

Wow, a whole month since my last post! And unsurprisingly there's lots to catch up on. We've had a family holiday in Spain full of lots of yummy food (some slimming world friendly and some not quite on plan!), a fantastic lunchtime treat at a vege cafe, and some pretty normal meals in between. The main reason for my mini break from the blog is that my return to work was looming. I wanted to spend as much time as possible with my babies whilst I could have them to myself. But all good things must come to an end, and at least I'll have my long weekends with them, rather than just the morning rush and bedtime routine. I'll concentrate this post on the normal stuff and post a separate one later on the holiday food. BreakfastsWe've mostly had the old favourites in the last few weeks, but one particularly memorable breakfast was when I asked little miss what she'd like and got this response:

It made me laugh lots and is now the standard response from her.

Little man has started having Suuuper Hoooops for breakfast now too and seems to be enjoying them. They tend to share a banana afterwards too, which he tries to eat in as few bites as possible! Whilst I've been sticking to my strawberries, raspberries, grapes and pomegranates with either shape yogurt or Fage total 0% Greek yogurt, sometimes with 35g Dorset cereal nutty muesli sprinkled on top for my healthy extra. My alternative breakfast has been a slimming world friendly BLT, all fat removed from the bacon, lots of lettuce and tomato, and a tablespoon of low fat Mayo instead of butter on the 2 slices of 400g wholemeal bread (healthy extra). Scrummy and filling. LunchesLunches have largely been leftovers of the previous evening's meal, Bolognese, chilli etc. But there have been a few exceptions. This super speedy jacket potato with tuna, pepper, sweetcorn and 1 tablespoon of light mayo (1 syn), with cucumber, tomatoes, lettuce and carrot on the side was particular scrummy, and enjoyed by us all.

A recent trip to 'the bear' a vegetarian cafe in Todmorden was a surprising delight. My friend had told me about this place before, and being a firm lover of meat I was sceptical. But it was absolutely gorgeous. The Mexican casserole itself can only have been about 2 Syns at the most. But the tortilla chips, yogurt dip and coconut and lime rice will have racked up the Syns up a bit. Still, it was probably better than the wraps, puff pastry tarts and feta samosas.

I made a super scrummy salad and coleslaw for myself the other day (the sun was shining and it seemed like the perfect food choice.) we decided to have a picnic in the garden because it was so lovely. Coleslaw: 2 Syns for the whole pot (1/2 syn per serving):1 carrot grated, 3/4 small white cabbage, chopped up into slithers, 1/4 red onion slices fine and roughly chopped, huge dollop of fat free fromage frais, 2 tbsp light mayo and a squeeze of lime juicePasta salad: 2 Syns for the whole pot (1/2 syn per serving):Pasta, 1 tin Tuna in spring water, 1 tin sweetcorn, 1/2 cucumber diced, 1/2 grated carrot, 1/4 white cabbage roughly chopped, fresh basil torn up, fresh mint leaves finely chopped, 3/4 red onion roughly chopped, 1 tin potatoes, huge dollop of fat free fromage frais, 2 tbsp light mayo, black pepper to taste. Little man was loving the pasta. Bean salad; 1 syn for whole pot, 1/2 syn per serving): 1 tin mixed beans, 1 tbsp olive oil, fresh mint finely chopped, juice of 1/2 lime, black pepper. All served with a nice crunchy salad (handful from a bag!), baby plum tomatoes, beetroot and a hard boiled egg. Dinnersthe regular favourites have been a staple part of the diet of late; chilli with extra peppers, mixed beans and served with rice and healthy extra cheese, sausages and potatoes, either mashed, roasted or new season jersey royals, with lots of veg. I use chipolata sausages because they are lower in Syns and seem to go further!

Whilst sausages are always a firm favourite with little miss and little man, my surprise favourite, was something I knocked together using left over roast chicken, to satiate a desire for a Chinese takeaway. Much to my chagrin we still haven't found a nice Chinese near to our new house, BUT from a Slimming World perspective that's probably a good thing. Chicken & noodles: shred some roast chicken, put into a shallow pan/wok, add some chicken stock, a handfull of frozen peas, 1 pack of value noodles (approx. 23p from a supermarket - throw out the flavour pack, this is where the Syns live), a good slug of light soy sauce and 2 good slugs of oyster sauce, a shake of Chinese 5 spice, and put a lid on to cook as per noodle instructions (usually bring to the boil and simmer 3-5 minutes), once you are about to serve add a full pack of sugar snap peas (or mange tout) and serve. it was super quick and delicious. if you have any other green leafy veg i'd recommend adding it, particularly kale or similar for that extra super speedy weight loss boost.